Legal Employment Down 12,000 Jobs in Last Year
The number of people working in legal services has dropped by nearly 12,000 in the last year, the U.S. Department of Labor reported today.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ seasonally adjusted numbers, which include nonlawyers, went from 1,175,200 in November 2007 to 1,163,500 this year.
In the last month, losses were reported at 2,200.
Lost jobs in the legal sector are part of record-breaking losses felt by industries almost across the board. Job losses totaled 533,000 for November, and the unemployment rate rose to 6.7 percent
Business Week reports that the economy is losing jobs at its fastest rate in three decades.
“How bad are these numbers? Worse than in the 1990-91 recession, whose worst month saw 306,000 lost jobs, or the 2001 recession, whose worst month was a loss of 325,000 jobs,” Business Week notes.
“The U.S. economy lost 431,000 jobs in May 1980, which was the worst month of the back-to-back recessions of 1980-82. If it’s any comfort, though, November’s showing was better than the recession month of December 1974, when the economy lost a staggering 602,000 jobs.”
